Phase One-Rehab update 4-21-17: Window seals, roof fan work

News update and photos in from Bill “Fletch” Fletcher owner of Fletcher’s Trailer Restoration and Sales in Trumansburg NY (Finger Lakes Region) was received today. Owner Fletch has two Avions he personally owns and has restored and maintains. Plus he has a sales yard full of some really cool vintage aluminum trailers ready for their new owners to finish off. I saw a Spartan that was awesome and ready for a new interior! Kevin was partial to the Holiday Rambler that Fletch owns and uses. Kevin was raised up during his youth with his parents owning several Holiday Ramblers and ultimately with so many kids (Kevin is youngest of 8) they owned a 32 footer.

Here is our Pewter Palace parked snug and a bug in a rug indoors while being worked on.

The palace is inside the shop and windows and exterior curbside compartment being recaulked with Par Bond which is the aluminum color caulk/sealant of choice for aluminum trailers.

It looks great and will certainly provide some needed sealant especially for that outside compartment that holds our leveling blocks, etc. Not that anything in there cannot get wet, but it also provides more protection so that moisture does not get in there and possibly compromise any adjoining internal areas like the bathtub area, etc.

Good news is that Fletch said our roof and its seams, and sealants around roof vents, etc looks quite good. He has ordered Eternabond tape to go over a few seams but for the most part she is in really good shape. Yeah! We had not seen any but wanted to be sure.

They are also working on replacing the roof fan shrouds with the new ones we had already purchased direct from Cayo in Watervliet, Michigan–the guru of Avions and whose family started the company. Chuck Cayo continues to be the go to man for things having to do with Avions and their restoration. These shrouds were so hard to find, that he took initiative to have a prototype made up and now offers replacements identical to the originals. These new ones are nice a light, bright and clean looking and will certainly last another 40 years. Fletch will then replace the toggle switches and motors for the fans. I in the meantime will be restoring the mesh screens that get inserted at the final stage inside. Once complete…we will be all set. These are the 18″ square fans which are much larger than the typical fantastic fans made today (14″) and really they let a lot of nice light in too. One thing I wish we did have that newer Airstreams have is a skylight…but oh well…we have a vintage rig and we love her.

Here is E.J. one of the workers at Fletcher’s fitting up the holes on the new shrouds using the original ones for template for drill holes. Note the brittle, almost butterscotch color of the 44 year old ones. I will be doing a whole separate blog page just on the roof fan systems since Avion restorer’s who have these are always sharing photos and tips.

We also have a few windows where the gaskets around the windows after 40+ years have either broken off in small sections or have shrunk where the seal is not sufficient. Fletch is on the hunt for the right stuff….

This is the curbside front window which is the one that we knew was leaking a slow leak last fall. Definitely have to get it fixed. It is great that we were able to get our rig out about two weeks ahead of Fletch’s original schedule because he got a chance to start working on her earlier than expected.

We continue to amass stuff to outfit the inside. I have yet to begin working on the curtain rehab….more to come!

Removing old caulk and applying new Par Bond sealant. See the difference below on top track of window.

P.S. Sorry some of these photos are a bit wonky. Fletch sent them embedded in an email and I had a really tough time working with them and could not download them separately so I had to use screen shot images.